Taliban Bans Women From Hearing Each Other's Voices

The Taliban has implemented a bizarre new edict that will further curb the voices of Afghan women who are already prohibited from speaking in public.

- ARPAN RAI

Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, the Taliban minister for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice, declared that women must refrain from reciting the Quran aloud in the presence of other women, reported Amu TV, an Afghan news channel based in the US. “When women are not permitted to call takbir or athan [Islamic call to prayer], they certainly cannot sing songs or music,” he said in remarks reported on Saturday.

“Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for them to hear ... How could they be allowed to sing if they aren’t even permitted to hear [each other’s] voices while praying, let alone for anything else,” Mr Hanafi was also quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.

A woman’s voice is considered